Glow Girl
by PickledWinry
Summary: The Yu Yu Hakusho gang meet a strange girl, who just wants to bring her mother back from the dead.


My mother called me Bacia, named for her mother. Grandma Bacia had been a strange woman, prone to fits of delusion, brought about by her power. She read minds, but only the niggling maggots people carried with them.

Some telepaths skimmed, others submerged. Grandma Bacia gnawed, until she ate her own sanity. Why my mother chose that name for me, I do not know. She claimed we had the same eyes, the same *death* in our mouth. We held ourselves in a straight line, like a wounded bird. We plucked our own feathers out.

Most of the time I went by Cia. Most people knew me as the Glow Girl. I hung strands of light off the ceiling, a form of mucus that attracted bugs and rather nasty things. In a world where people can lift trucks off the ground, I was nothing more than a pretty shimmer. I would amount to nothing.

My mother passed away when I was seventeen. That is when the first cruel comments came. My brother could heal with just a touch, and I could make light. She had died in my grasp. If only I could have done more than glitter.

That is the day I lost my father.

When I went to school the next day, I heard the low hum of gossip. My name moving through the halls like the Flash.

*She is nothing more than a human.*

*About as useful as Kassandra and her broken spine.*

*What will she do? Save on electricity?*

*She killed her own mother.*

It escalated. Without my mother there to make a threat-without my brother's tolerant acceptance-people turned on me. I tripped, I was hit, I had flashes of nightmares while giving presentations. It escalated too quickly. I didn't know what else to do. I wanted to tell them I was useful, but there were few words to describe the empty scream in my heart. Like wind through a cave eating its own tail.

The Night of the Party was not one I looked forward to. I had not been invited, though I would have been allowed to attend. All *strange* people were allowed. No one would have turned me away, but they would have turned on me the moment the door closed. Maybe I wanted that. Maybe I wanted them to tear me apart.

I didn't have any desire to go to that party. Instead I went to the movies, seeing *Gone with the Wings* twice. The human boy at the counter gave me a smile and I stopped to chat with him. The theater was nearly empty. Everyone was either at the Party or home. It was a Tuesday and no one wanted to see old hero movies.

He asked for my number and I blushed, my skin turning a solemn blue. My fingers began to drip the strings and he gave me a disgusted look. "Acid girls are not my thing," he said. "Melt my dick off."

"No... It's just... strands of lights. I glow. That's it."

He seemed interested. I told him it looked really cool when the lights were off. I just didn't always know how to control it. He made me nervous, so I made light.

He sighed. "Yeah. I am going to pass. I don't date Supes."

I must have looked so sad that he offered to refill my popcorn for free. He seemed to stare at me for a moment too long, watching the lights float in and out of my skin. I touched his hand when taking the bag. He froze, hands going towards his throat.

After two large gasps, his hands took on a strange, sparkling radience.

"What did you do?" he asked, seeming in awe.

"I made you beautiful," I said. I took the popcorn and left. On my way out of the theater, I passed a girl with a broom. I asked her where the bathroom was and thanked her.

"Hey, girl, supe," she said when she saw the way my skin flashed. "Are you... why are you here?"

"I like movies," I said. "Parties are overrated."

She laughed. "No, really, you get banned or something? Too radioactive?"

"I don't do anything like that," I said. "I make things glow. I made *Steve* over there shine like a bitch."

The girl gripped my hand without even prompting. "Can you make me glow? Like my hair? That would be awesome."

I brought my hand to her head. Her hair took on a strange hue, the brown almost black. When the light hit it, there was a demonic resonance.

The rest of her skin began to shimmer as well.

She rushed off to look in the mirror. I waited for her, eating my popcorn, hoping it would work. Hoping I had been right all along.

When the girl returned-Amber, that was it-she was five shades before lighting up the sky. She told me she looked amazing, her body shining beneath her uniform.

"Make it stop," I heard Steve say. "Make it stop."

Steve was approaching me, trying to stop the slender lines of mucus coming out of his fingers. He took one look at Amber and lunged. He was on her before she could scream. I watched him tear at her face. It took five minutes before security came. I saw it through the glass doors, heading down the street.

I had been right all along. Not so useless after all.

The glow died beneath my skin and I was human again.


End file.
